


an afternoon in the royal gardens

by skeletondragon



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:02:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22151488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skeletondragon/pseuds/skeletondragon
Summary: One sunny day in Asgard, Loki finds himself bored and alone in the royal gardens after Thor is pulled away to court on princely business. Luckily for him, Valkyrie soon barges in to annoy and fight him. The two of them come to blows, Thor makes an appearance, and against all odds Loki may have made a friend.(aka it’s the teen Loki AU no one asked for!)
Relationships: Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Loki & Thor (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Loki (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie & Thor (Marvel), Brunnhilde | Valkyrie/Loki (Marvel), Loki & Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 33





	an afternoon in the royal gardens

**Author's Note:**

> I was going through a bunch of WIPs and I found this one from 2017, so I thought I'd try to finish it. Feel free to read it as either platonic or pre-romantic between Loki and Valkyrie, whatever's your jam. This is my first fanfic I'm posting here, and one of the few that I've ever finished, and apologies for any grammatical errors therein as it's currently two in the morning!

It was a warm, sunny day in Asgard. The sky was bright, with only a wisp of clouds marring the perfect blue. In the royal gardens, the leaves of the trees reflected a vibrant green as a slight breeze rustled their branches. On the ground beneath one of the trees sat Loki Odinson, Prince of Asgard, thoroughly bored and conspicuously alone.

_The day wasn’t supposed to be like this_ , he mused, staring up at foliage and conjuring small images of flame and sparks that danced along his fingers. Not even an hour ago, he and Thor were planning on sparring here, Thor with his hammer and Loki with his magic. He had challenged his older brother to the fight, having just learned a new spell and wanting to test it as soon as possible. And yet, some royal duty or another had pulled the Crown Prince away from their match and to the court, leaving Loki to sit by himself underneath the trees, summoning illusions to pass the time.

He had just managed to craft a near-perfect replica of the Infinity Gauntlet he had seen in the royal chambers when he heard a sudden rustling in the bushes to his left. Turning his head, Loki saw the branches part and a deer bound in front of him. His concentration was broken and the Infinity Gauntlet went up in smoke. For a moment, the two stared at one another, each taken aback by the other’s presence. Loki made a slight movement forward, and the creature started, gamboling away into the brush as fast as it had come.

Settling back from the sudden intrusion, Loki was about to sit down when the bush to his left rustled again. _Another deer?_ he thought, only to be interrupted by some small thing hurtling itself towards him. Loki moved back swiftly and dodged the attack as the creature landed in front of him and unfurled itself.

It was a girl. At least, he would have believed it a girl, only that she was covered in white-gold armor, dirt smeared across her cheeks, bits of dirt and foliage strung through her wildly unkempt hair.

Loki believed he was more perceptive than the average Asgardian. At the very least, he was certainly more perceptive than his brother. Within a few seconds of this girl making her grand entrance, he noted several things about her - she was young but roughly his age, was certainly untidier than he was, and held a slightly frenzied look in her eye. First and foremost, however, he noticed her fist about to make contact with his chin. For the second time in as many minutes, he stepped back quickly to dodge her as the girl let out a frustrated scream that seemed too big for her body.

“You made that deer run away! _I was just about to catch it, you jerk!_ ” she yelled, eyes ablaze. Her hands swung back, readying for another strike. Seeing the motion, Loki moved forward, catching the hand as she thrust it forward. He exhaled heavily with the effort – _How can someone so short pack such a punch?_ \- and grabbed her other hand before she could use it to hit him between his ribs.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing, you insane girl?” he shouted, forcing her hands to her waist to avoid any more attempts at injuring him. The girl was shorter than him but had thrown all her weight into the punch and clearly intended to knock him off his feet. She looked at him defiantly, chin up, eyebrow cocked. She paused for a moment before swinging the right side of her body forward, twisting into him before stepping out of his grasp. Momentarily stunned, Loki simply let the girl’s arms go as she spun away and turned to face him.

“I was chasing that deer, and I nearly had it. Then you surprised it and let it get away from me, so I wanted some recompense,” she said, as though her logic was the most obvious thing in the world and not completely insane. Eyeing him warily, she backed away slowly until there was a meter or two of space separating them.

Loki simply stared at her for a moment. A dozen thoughts raced through his mind. _What is she doing? Who let her out of whatever cage she was surely trapped in? Why is she in armor? Why does she look like she just fought a bear?_ In the end, he settled on inquiring, in as snobbish a tone as he could muster, “What is your name, you insolent child?”

The girl huffed, straightening out and crossing her arms haughtily. “My name is Valkyrie, and I’m not a child. In fact, I bet I’m older than you are!” she stated, volume increasing, clearly affronted at the idea that this mere boy would think to question her.

Loki tilted his head, brow furrowed. “Your name _can’t_ be Valkyrie. That’s not even a proper name. Everyone knows they’re the female warriors who aided Odin his conquest of the Nine Realms.” He stopped, looked her over, lips curling into a faint sneer. “You’re barely a woman, so logically you can’t be one of the Valkyrie. And you can hardly catch a single deer.” At this slight, the girl tensed, ready to pounce on him. The sight made Loki laugh sharply. _Well, whoever she is, at least she’s entertaining_. Not wanting to risk another punch, he raised his hands in front of his chest in mock surrender, words aiming to ameliorate whatever offense he had caused. “Okay, okay, as you wish. I’ll call you Valkyrie, however inaccurate that may be.”

Valkyrie straightened her back and put her arms on her hips as she declared, “I know who the Valkyrie are. I am one of them. Well,” she paused at his raised eyebrow, “I may not be a Valkyrie yet, but I am in training to become one in the future. They’re the most powerful warriors in all the Nine Realms, and soon I’m going to be one, too. Then I’ll be out there defending all of Asgard”. Eyes narrowing slightly, she continued, “Even if that includes people like you.”

Snorting at her last retort, Loki decided to play along with the girl. At the very least, she was someone to talk to, and he had grown bored of conjuring figures with no audience but the trees. He decided to stay standing in case he needed to evade another strike but slouched his shoulders and rested his back on a tree trunk, attempting to convey a feel of nonchalance. “So, O noble Valkyrie, what brings you to the royal gardens? I haven’t seen you here before.”

“Mother has a meeting with Odin Allfather,” she said. If she were a bird, her chest would have puffed up with pride. “I was selected as one of her shield-maidens to accompany her on business this month. But the issues she and the Allfather are discussing are top-secret, important business regarding the Valkyrie and some future negotiations, and only the most elite of the elder Valkyries were privy to their conversation, so as I am the youngest of the shield-maidens I remained in the forests. Why are you here?” she shot back, just as quick but marginally less aggressive than before.

“These are my gardens!” he said, a touch of exasperation coloring the words. _Of course, she is the one who barged in and now she’s acting like I’m the odd one for being here._

“Says who?” she asked.

He pursed his lips and shot her a look of disbelief. “It’s in the _name_. They’re the _royal gardens_. And yours truly,” he said, gesturing down to himself, “is a _prince_. So, royal gardens for a royal prince.”

Her entire posture grew rigid at his words. Her eyes widened, and Loki could see her cheeks flush slightly as she belatedly took in his entire appearance. “Oh! You-you’re a prince?” _How had she not noticed earlier?_ he wondered. True, he was not in his usual court regalia, but it was rare to find anyone on the palace’s grounds who didn’t know his face. “I’m sorry,” she said with a short bow, “I shouldn’t have tried to hit you. Valkyries are supposed to work with the royal family, not against them.” But as quickly as her expression had become abashed, it shifted and became more probing. She tilted her head, a question dancing on the tip of her tongue. “So which one are you? Everyone talks about Thor, but you’re not-“ she said, hesitating slightly. _What? Not tall enough? Not strong enough? Not adorned with enough muscles?_ he thought acidly, before she continued. “You don’t have the hammer Mjølnir. Everyone knows that Odin bestowed it to Thor on his most recent name-day. So that means you must be Loki,” she stated simply, a question they both knew the answer to.

_How diplomatic of her._ “You are correct. I am Loki Odinson, the other Prince of Asgard, at your service,” he affirmed with a slight, mocking bow. He kept his expression carefully neutral. _I suppose that should only be a little disappointing_.

Valkyrie interrupted his reverie again, not missing a beat at his words. “Is it true what they say, that you can make lions and horses and dragons come to life?” Her words lacked the wariness that so often accompanied mentions of his magic skills; if anything, they held a tone of excitement. Loki blinked. He knew that the common people were aware of his talents, but how did they get such fanciful ideas? He had not gotten quite so far as conjuring dragons. _Well, if that’s what she believes, why should I dissuade her?_

“Yes, in a manner of speaking,” he said, deciding to take his usual route of masking any disquiet with mild bravado.

“That’s amazing! Show me!” she demanded, hands clasping together and a smile breaking across her face. “Can you make a dragon right now? Oh, oh, or a frost giant! Mother told me about those the other day,” she said, visage briefly growing serious at any mention of Asgard’s battles. “If it weren’t for the combined strength of Odin and Mother, we’d still be fighting them. She says they were among the toughest enemies the Valkyries ever faced. You should try and make one so that I can see what they were like!” she said, tone brightening once again.

“I am not going to make a frost giant.” _Nor do I quite know what they look like_. He knew what frost giants were, of course, had read about them as he whiled hours away in the depths of the royal library, but reading about a creature and conjuring a replica of it were two completely separate matters. _Not that she would know if I made up some of the details_. Shaking his head, he dispelled the thought. Without a better idea of what he was making, he was slightly nervous that the apparition would appear wonky, and he very much did not want to embarrass himself, even in front of an anonymous, unruly girl.

Valkyrie crossed her arms and frowned. “I thought you were supposed to be good at this. What can you make? Can you make anything?”

“Wh- Can I make anything? Of course I can! Who are you to doubt me?” he said, now openly offended. _This girl, I swear._ He had nothing to prove to her, of course, but the prospect that she could leave this garden doubting his prowess rankled at him.

“Well, so far you haven’t actually proven anything, so I’m going to assume it’s all talk and you can’t,” she said, sticking out her tongue impishly.

_What an intolerable girl._ He knew she was goading him, and he was chagrinned to feel that her plan was working. Loki thought carefully for a second on what best to conjure up, a small smile emerging as the perfect idea struck him. “Alright, you want to see what I can do?” he asked, and she immediately nodded, disbelieving façade dropping as excitement sparked in her eyes. He waved his arms back and forth dramatically, pretending to shape with the air in between them. Several seconds passed and the light in the girl’s eyes dimmed, expression growing steadily more unimpressed as nothing materialized before them. Just as the corners of her mouth ticked down in a frown, Loki glanced over her shoulder, feigned a look of terror, and yelled out, “Watch out, there’s a bear!” The girl whipped around to see a seven-foot tall brown bear standing several meters back from them across the clearing, rearing on its hind legs and letting out a tremendous roar.

Rather than screaming in terror and retreating as he expected, however, the girl promptly crouched down, a dagger materializing in her hand from some hidden compartment of her armor. Just as she began to move towards the bear, Loki waved his hands and it transformed into a small grey rabbit, which dutifully bounded away into the forest.

She turned to face him, delighted at the commotion, dagger still in hand. “Oh, so you can make bears, Loki? What a marvelous trick!”

_It was rather marvelous, wasn’t it?_ “It’s Prince Loki, if you would. Was your plan to attack the bear head-on?” he asked, voiced tinged with amusement. The girl nodded brashly, without any trace of doubt or self-preservation. He supposed it made some modicum of sense. If her first response to him scaring her deer away was to strike him, why not have approximately the same reaction to an unforeseen bear attack?

The girl had a bit of a temper and her words didn’t so much border rude as hurtled straight into it, but she was certainly livening up Loki’s day. An idea struck him. Looking at her but taking care not to stare her down, he asked, “If you are stuck here in the gardens until your Mother’s meeting is finished, would you care to spar?” He hoped that he successfully carried an air of indifference to her response. Not that he really was all that indifferent. He wanted her to say yes – she seemed a decent fighter, and he still wanted to practice the new spells he had learned. _But best not let her know that._

Valkyrie gave him an odd look. “I'm pretty sure I'm not meant to be fighting royalty.”

Loki scoffed at her remark. “You’ve already tried to punch me at least twice when I wasn’t expecting it, so what’s once or twice more when I am? And besides, if anyone asks why you are fighting a prince, we can say that I ordered you to,” he said lightly, trying to keep the wheedling out of his words. He sensed that she wouldn’t respond well to being pushed by anyone other than her elder Valkyries.

He saw her weigh his words in her mind. A less skilled charmer would interject at this moment, try to break her silence and convince with more pleas. Loki, however, was no mere amateur tempter. He was experienced with coaxing people to do whatever it was he wanted. _After all, she wants to fight me too._ He had seen the look on her face when he had used his magic. There was certainly wonder in her eyes, but it was mixed with curiosity and a glint of challenge.

One moment turned to two moments turned to three. Loki waited. Finally, Valkyrie appeared to make her decision. She flipped her blade once in the air before catching it and pointing it at him with a flourish. “Alright, princeling, I accept your challenge. When would you like to fight?”

“Excellent, I knew you would see reason. I am ready whenever you are,” he said, walking to the central clearing in the middle of the trees as she trailed behind him. He turned and assumed a battle stance, hands beginning to crackle with energy. “And that’s Prince Loki to you!”

* * *

Loki was not sure how much time had passed as they fought. The two of them sparred, trading blows and barbs in equal measure. He had the advantage of magic and height, but she had superior weapons training and they were both as agile as each other. It was evenly matched. As soon as Loki brought Valkyrie down on her back, she would roll over and hop up, swiping at his legs with a low kick. Every time she brought her dagger near his throat, he slipped from her grasp and regrouped some distance from her. Back and forth, back and forth, the two of them fought. In the moments they weren’t in direct contact, they clashed with words- he mocking her knife skills and she scoffing at his spells. Loki felt exhilarated. Her fighting style was similar to Thor’s but unlike it enough that he was kept on his toes, unable to rely on previous experience to fully inform his attacks. He could not read her mind, but her appearance of elation seemed to indicate that she felt the same.

Finally, the two of them exhausted all their physical energy and collapsed back under the shade of the trees, breathing heavily. The sun had risen to its apex partway through their fighting and was now on its downward descent, but it still shone as strongly as ever through the leaves as they looked up at the sky. A sheer sheen of sweat covered their brows, and Valkyrie’s hair had become even more impossibly twisted than before, loose tendrils creating a halo of frizz around the crown of her head.

Rather than lapse into silence – _I am not sure she knows how to be quiet_ , Loki mused- Valkyrie began detailing her life as a new Valkyrie apprentice as she regained her breath. Given her age, she was still in the beginning stages of her training. “But Mother says I have the potential to become a great warrior,” she emphasized, clearly pleased with the praise. She talked about every aspect of her training, from the combat lessons to the instructions on flying the mythical winged horses all Valkyries rode to the complexities of living with her fellow warriors in their shared barracks. As she spoke, her eyes sparkled and her gestures grew bigger, as though mere words were not enough and she need her hands to properly depict the enormity of what she described. Loki smiled at her enthusiasm. _If she has the tenacity to take on a bear without a second thought, I suppose she will do well with her training._ As she continued illustrating her and her sisters’ lives, Loki found himself relaxing and chiming in with details of his own life at the palace. He spoke of his own weapons schooling, the lessons on diplomacy and warfare, growing up in the palace with Thor, and the unending intricacies of court etiquette.

When Loki began to talk of his mother’s sorcery lessons, he saw a wondrous expression settle on Valkyrie’s face, a calmer version of how she looked after seeing the bear. “I don’t really understand how all this magic works,” she admitted, lowering her voice as if to conceal some great secret, “but I have always wondered. Some of the older Valkyries are better versed in those arts, though I have no talent for them at all.”

Loki, ever the show-off, began demonstrating the basic process of creating his illusions. They had been talking for long enough that he had regained some of his stamina, enough to conjure a few images as they rested. _There’s no harm in this, it’s not as though she can make them herself_ , he reasoned. Turning on his side to face her, he patted the patch of dirt between them so that she would mirror his action. “The hardest part of sorcery isn’t the spells themselves,” he explained, “Before you can begin to create, you need to find a source for the creative magic, and discovering that is the hardest part. It’s not so hard, once you’ve become attuned, to make anything. I just see the image in my head and make it so,” he said. As he talked, he twirled a hand, a group of miniatures of emerging between him and her. First, he created the bear he had summoned earlier, followed in turn by a wolf, a goat, and a boar. He even made Sleipnir, his father’s eight-legged horse. The creature galloped to Valkyrie and reared back, its front hooves beating against her thighs lightly, causing her to laugh. Loki tried to school his mouth into an aloof smile lest she sense how pleased he was at her reaction.

Right as he was beginning to form an eagle, Loki heard a familiar, boisterous crashing through the underbrush. “Loki, brother! Are you still here? Come out wherever you’re hidden and let us have at it!” a voice rang out. _Oh, great, here comes the great oaf now_. Perhaps if he said nothing, and Valkyrie kept quiet, they would be left in peace and Loki could return to exhibiting his powers. “Loki, I know you’re there!” Thor bellowed, voice gradually coming nearer.

As soon as Thor stepped into the clearing, he spotted the two of them resting in the shade. He looked at Loki, then to Valkyrie, then at the animals still corralled between their bodies and back again at Loki, a grin nearly splitting his face in two. “Hello, brother,” Loki greeted him, hoping to avert whatever incoming jab Thor was sure to make.

“Loki, I was just looking for you! But who is this wonderful person by your side?” Thor said, gaze sliding to Valkyrie and sizing her up. Loki was well acquainted with the action. On any other man, the quick sweep of his gaze could be accused of ogling, but Loki knew that Thor was simply trying to remember if he had met her previously before introducing himself in his normal, obnoxiously charming manner. “My lady, I don’t believe we are acquainted! My name is Thor Odinson, and I am the brother of Loki, whom I see you have already met.” Loki held back a wince. _Does he have to speak so loudly?_ His mood was beginning to sour, though he could not tell why. After all, sparring with Thor had been his original plan for the day. _I am just tired from fighting with Valkyrie, that’s all._ Thor walked over and reached down to shake Valkyrie’s hand, and she leveraged his weight to spring to her feet. She bowed to him. “Good afternoon, Your Highness. My name is Valkyrie, and I am one of the warriors-in-training who will work protect Asgard and the throne. I came here accompanying my Mother when she had business with Odin Allfather”

Somehow, Thor’s grin grew even wider at her words. “Oh yes, I met her earlier. And of course you are one of the apprentices of the Valkyrie! I have visited your compounds with my father. You all are truly marvelous, and a real sight to behold. I can only hope one day to have the same martial prowess as your Mother, and I pray that I may one day have any skill at all at flying those winged horses that you all use so easily as your faithful steeds.”

Looking between the two of them as their conversation picked up intensity, the girl waving her arms wildly and nearly shouting in her excitement, Loki realized what was about to happen. _Ah, yes. Now that Thor’s here, she would of course prefer to talk to him. Perhaps she will ask him to spar. So it goes. I should make my exit now, before this nonsense goes any further._ He sighed and got up from the ground, dusting a few twigs and bits of debris from his breeches.

He could not fault either Valkyrie or Thor, really. Thor loved to meet new people, and as much as she was amused by his conjurations it was inevitable that the girl would be more inclined to talk with the Crown Prince, just as most people were. As he turned to leave, however, the girl started gesticulating in his direction.

“And then I ran into Prince Loki, and he conjured a bear! And then he challenged me to a fight, _which I was going to win_ ,” she said, calling out to him pointedly, “but we decided to rest for awhile. He just showed me a replica of Sleipnir, whom I haven’t seen in person but I hope to one day. And then you came by, and now here we are”. Thor looked between the two of them, surprise and amusement mixing on his face.

Loki saw his expression and sensed that Thor had misconstrued the situation and was about to attempt some ill-timed remark. He needed to intervene again. “It seems that you conveniently forgot the part where you attacked me unprovoked for simply daring to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he said, staring her down with as much umbrage as he could gather. Valkyrie pulled a face at him over Thor’s shoulder. Rather than look any less obnoxiously happy, Thor beamed at his little brother, and Loki sighed, this time from exasperation. _I will never hear the end of this._

Thor addressed the two of them. “It seems to me that you two have already had enough sparring for today. I do not think I will be of any use here, and besides, I am famished from all these humdrum meetings. What say you and I and the engaging warrior-in-training here gather some food and eat beneath the trees?” Loki looked at his brother and then to Valkyrie. Her eyes shone with the chance to talk further with Thor, and Loki was not particularly inclined to move from his spot. He found it rather comfortable. Shrugging, he said, “Whatever you wish, brother,” and settled back into the grass.

* * *

The three of them sat beneath the same tree Loki and Valkyrie had laid under earlier in the afternoon, remnants of cheese, bread, meat and mead sprinkled around them. The sun was noticeably lower in the sky, the shadows longer than before and the air surrounding them beginning to cool. Loki and Valkyrie both rested with their backs on the tree trunk, while Thor was splayed out on the ground next to them. Valkyrie idly flipped her dagger between her hands while Thor regaled them with his account of his morning meeting with Odin.

“And I was on my way to meet you here, Loki, when I got a message saying that Father needed to see me immediately. It turns out there is some meeting of dignitaries that I need to attend two days hence, and he wanted to do some briefing so that we can avoid another incident like last time. I mean,” he sat up on his forearm and gestured to Valkyrie, “I may have drunk a bit too much mead and upended a table, but that sounds like a good way to enliven a staid negotiating session, does it not?” Valkyrie grinned and nodded while Loki rolled his eyes at Thor’s antics. “I told Father that I was busy, but he insisted that this meeting was too important to risk again. So, I ended up being delayed, and for that I am truly sorry.”

Loki knew that Thor was apologizing out of a sense of guilt, but he wasn’t truly mad at him. It was not as though Thor could shirk his princely duties, and Loki could not muster up the usual level of indignation he normally felt at being left out. _It’s no matter, the entire thing sounded boring and I ended up getting to test my new spells today anyways._

Despite not being upset at Thor, Loki declined to say anything after his explanation. He found that it was sometimes better to make his brother squirm. Valkyrie looked to him, and he put a finger to his lips. She shrugged and returned to her flipping her blade. In the silence, an imperious-sounding voice rang out through the trees. “Brunnhilde! Come here, we are leaving!”

Beside him, the girl’s posture immediately straightened and the dagger stilled in her hand. The skin of her face and neck that wasn’t covered by dirt flushed a lovely shade of brown. On anyone else, Loki might have dared to call it endearing. She looked away from Loki and Thor, into the forest – _oh, how amusing, she’s embarrassed-_ and called out, “Yes, Mother! I’m coming!” She leapt to her feet, and furiously scrubbed at her cheeks. Bits of dried mud flaked off and scattered to ground.

Loki looked up at her from the ground and watched as she futilely tried to tame the rat’s nest of her hair into something more manageable. He sighed dramatically, drawing her attention with an accompanying glare, and said, “Here, let me help you with that before you make it worse than it started.” He waved his hand lazily, and in a moment her hair was back in a sleek bun, face free from its covering of grime. _How lovely_ , he thought, before blinking and letting the idea float away. She put a hand to her hair and felt along her scalp before touching her fingers to her cheeks and pulling them away clean. Her eyebrows rose in surprise, and the flush remained on her cheeks.

“Thank you!” she said, surprise coloring her words. “I didn’t want to make Mother angry with me for more fighting. I have to go now, but I hope to meet you both again, perhaps once I have had more training.” She quickly bowed to them before darting back across the clearing and to the bushes she had barreled through so many hours ago. Just as she reached the other side, she skidded to a halt, looked back directly at Loki, and shouted, “I hope we can fight again soon!” before bounding into the forest with a practiced grace.

Loki gave her a small wave, knowing that she could not see the gesture. He closed his eyes and laid his head back against the bark gently, chuckling at the memory of the afternoon. _What a strange girl_ , he contemplated. He felt Thor shift to sit next to him, taking Brunnhilde’s spot. “She seemed nice,” Thor said. Loki cracked one eye open to look at him, but refused to dignify him with a response. “Loki, I knew you were a charmer, but she really is something else. I don’t know how you got to talking to her, but I like her!” he continued, overlooking his reticence and clapping him on the shoulder.

Loki shrugged off Thor’s hand. “It’s not like that. It is exactly as she told you- she ran into me, and we decided to fight each other for lack of anything else to do. Nothing more, nothing less. I found her somewhat annoying, to be honest with you,” he said, the words slipping easily off his tongue. “If you are interested in her, by all means, go ahead.” He emphasized the point with a dispassionate flick of the wrist.

Thor was uncharacteristically silent. At this, Loki opened both his eyes and found Thor studying his face. A mild heat rose in his chest and he felt almost exposed, but he refused to let his facial muscles shift. “Anything to add?”

Thor continued his silence for another minute before shrugging his shoulders and leaning back onto the trunk. “You know, Loki, I think she is an enchanting young warrior and I have a great deal I could learn from her combat prowess, but there is nothing more there than that. I do think, though, that you should take her up on her offer to spar again.” With that, he let the subject go, returning back to talk of Odin and Heimdall and the upcoming negotiations.

Loki was glad Thor dropped the subject. He did not wish to speak any further about Valkyrie, Brunnhilde, the future leader of the most elite warriors in Asgard, whatever she preferred to be called. But perhaps, he conceded as Thor rambled on, his brother had a point. _I might have to see when she is available to fight again_.


End file.
